“You picked one hell of a place to take a tumble,” he said as he glanced around at their surroundings before getting back to her scrapes. “That rock wall you were trying to scramble around almost looks like a face.”
She didn’t care, though. She didn’t want to take in the surroundings. Really, she wanted to forget about the whole thing and get the heck out of there. She wanted to getawayfrom Rafa, not have him even closer, being nice to her and treating her wounds while she was out there acting like a stubborn child who got their little baby feelings hurt.
They continued in relative silence until he finally broke the ice. “Why do you keep doing things like this?”
“What things?”
“Taking risks. Doing dangerous things. What’s your obsession with beingbadass?”
“Whycan’tI do those things? Corrie does them all the time.”
“You’re not Corrie.”
His words stung.
“Well, she had to start somewhere. Maybe this is the start ofmyjourney.”
“Or it could be the end of it,” he said pointedly, sucking the remaining ounce of confidence out of Miri. “You’re lucky you came out of this with only a few scrapes and bruises. It could have been much,muchworse.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, biting hard to keep from crying. He was right. Even she thought she might have died as she was falling.
“What is it about this expedition? Why is this so important to you?” he asked, eyeing her curiously.
Miri’s entire body deflated.Guess we’re doing this.
“Do you ever feel like you’re always waiting for your life tostart?” she asked. “Like you have all these things that you want to do, but you wonder if you’ll ever be able to do them? There’s always something, or someone, in your way?”
“What are you waiting for?” he asked.
She turned to face him. “I was waiting for an opportunity like this. A chance to prove that I could be a badass. That I could lead an expedition and make some great discovery. I want to do something amazing. I want people to see me and be like,Damn, she’s fucking rad.”
Rafa snickered. Ouch. She wasn’t trying to be funny.
“What? Why are you laughing?”
“It’s nothing. I just love when you say things like ‘rad.’ ”
She frowned. “Well, I’m not trying to be funny.”
“I know you’re not. That’s why it’s so refreshing being around you.”
“Tell that to the other half of the team who’ve already quit.” She folded her arms and looked away.
“In case you don’t remember, I believe I have, Pringles,” he said.
Miri shot a glance at Rafa, who was staring at her with a knowing look. Oh, she hadn’t forgotten.Dr. Jacobs looks good all the time.She blushed thinking about the night at the campfire. Hearing Rafa talk about her to the others like he’d forgotten she was there.
“Well,” she said, pushing the tingling feelings aside, “it’s what I want. For people to know who I am, like Corrie.”
“It takes time for people to build up a résumé like that.”
“Well, I don’t have time.”
“You’re young. You’ve probably got dozens of adventures left in you.”
“Not if I come home empty-handed. And before you go saying you’re sure this isn’t my last opportunity, let me stop you,” she said, putting her hand up. “My boss essentially told me that if I don’t come back from this expedition with something noteworthy, I probably shouldn’t bother coming back at all.”
Rafa narrowed his brows. “That’s bullshit.”
